Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Jeff Bennett Hawk's Jasmine Johnson shows some spirit running in her first cross country race on Sept. 8 at the Beaver Invitational in Folsom, CA

Running around the cross-country course now, you see more than men with big calves representing Las Positas. Now, you see cute girls with ponytails flapping back and forth in a Las Positas uniform.
Gone are the days Las Positas Cross Country was dominated by male athletes, as this season the Hawks manage to field their first women's team in the past three years.
With a full women's team comes new changes for Coach Steve Navarro and the men's team who haven't had to train with women during their collegiate running career. The biggest change, along with seeing women tanning everyday, has been the amount of teaching coach Navarro has had to do.
"I took them into a classroom and showed them how scoring works in cross country," said coach Navarro. They didn't know you needed to have fun runners to compete for a team score." During coach Navarro's teaching session, the men sat in the back shrugging the lecture off. While the men already knew what was being taught, the women were more then excited to learn.
"They were eating it up," said coach Navarro. "They are such a lively and upbeat group to work with."
It's just not during class time that the women bring their upbeat side out, but also during their training and at the meets. With only three of the eight runners on the team with any running experience, the team on the whole is still getting used to all the work involved in cross country.
All of the hard work they do and life they bring to the team has been a breath of fresh air in the male driven sport at Las Positas. The men love the women they are running with and wouldn't give them up for the world.
"They are adorable," said male teammate Joey Nunes. " Without them it's just a stressful pile of testosterone."

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